


The Cache

by hanarmontana



Series: Mass Effect: Prospectus [1]
Category: Mass Effect
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-25
Updated: 2015-11-25
Packaged: 2018-05-03 07:52:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,846
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5282789
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hanarmontana/pseuds/hanarmontana
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The mail showed up in Shepards inbox. The sender simply said it was from "Omega". Shepard knew the planet and it's shady, somewhat treacherous folk, but went along anyway. It spoke of a cache, left behind by a team who couldn't bring it on board with the rest of their shipments, on a planet called Altanorch in Ming system. Little does the Normandy crew know this won't be a quick and easy pickup mission.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Cache

**Author's Note:**

> So as to wholly enjoy the writing process, these fanfics will rarely if ever mention the plot of the game series, or even relay the events of that which they entail. This is also my first time writing any sort of fanfic whatsoever. I usually write novels and freelance articles. Thank you.

The halls of the Normandy were different at night.

After all the crewmen had gone to bed, and the ship was on autopilot, Shepard would get up and walk the halls from time to time (mostly when she couldn't sleep, which seemed to be most nights these days), just taking in the quiet, and the serene beauty of space through the windows. On this particular night, she found herself standing on the perch overlooking her galaxy map, just looking at all the little digitized versions of planets and star systems and clusters that lay before her. She thought about how immeasurably huge the galaxy actually was and how little of it they'd probably actually seen, let alone discover. It wasn't often the Normandy wasn't on assignment of some sort, and so these times when they were just drifting through space, waiting for a new assignment to come in, seemed to be the only chance Shepard had to even think about doing some planet hopping, just for fun. 

Just then, she heard the sound of boots on the metal floor in the hall behind her. Shepard turned to see the Normandys scientist, Mordin Solus appear in the same room, looking at something on his omnitool. He glanced up, then back to his tool, before looking back up again, seeming as if Shepards presence had caught him by complete surprise.

"I didn't expect anyone to be up at this hour, how embarrassing," Mordin said.

"Neither did I," Shepard replied, "You still working?"

"That depends on context. Working? No. Testing? Yes. Testing on something for work? Indeed not," the Salarian said, in that quick fluid speech she'd come to recognize from his kind. He walked towards her, continuing, "I find it easier to test at night, not so many distractions. Less people barging into medbay, worrying that they've contracted some sort of space flu, as if such a thing should exist. Imagine that."

That's when Shepard noticed the dripping sound coming from whatever Mordin was holding in his other hand. They both looked down, and she noticed the faint outline of what appeared to be something squishy and wet. Shepard grimaced a little.

"Is that a heart?" she asked.

"Yes," he responded matter of factly, "I've been asked by a doctor back home to send back a few organs for experimentation. The Volus want to try and life off planet, in a world more akin to those like we can survive in. Like the Quarian, they cannot survive off world without their protective suits. This Salarian doctor thinks if perhaps we can alter DNA in the Volus, we can help them start to live without those suits. She has volunteers ready and willing to have these implanted into themselves, and hopefully, survive off world. Not without a price though."

"A price?" Shepard asked, hand on her hip.

"Well of course. Volus culture is dominated by trade. That's how they make a living. Even on their homeworld, there is rarely fighting of any kind, and on the chance that there is, it's usually settled by a rather strict set of economic decisions. They'll know the price of this sort of test, and whether or not they want to participate. It's a rather hefty fine."

"I get it," Shepard said, "Sell them back their own organs for a fraction of their own money. Clever thinking."

Mordin managed a slight grin at his commanders humor, then walked onto the perch with Shepard, as they both looked out over the galaxy map. Shepard put her hands on the rails that surrounded the perch and sighed, leaning forward.

"I feel trapped," Shepard finally said, quietly.

"Elaborate?" Mordin asked.

"I feel like I exist solely to do work for the Alliance, not that that's a bad thing. Obviously I got into this for a reason, and I love to help, but...sometimes even the soldiers who like their jobs want a break now and then. I want to do something different from errands and battle. I want to just explore planets for the sake of exploring them, and not because I'm being asked to. Exploration is so key to how we've even gotten this far in the galaxy and now it feels looked upon as a repetitive bore that nobody enjoys," Shepard said.

"What would you like to explore?" Mordin asked.

"I don't know, Mordin, anything," Shepard said.

"I can't imagine doing something without a purpose," Mordin said, "Everything needs a reason. To perform tests, with no real reason behind it, it lacks any logic. If I'm going to experiment on something, I'd like to know why I'm experimenting on it. Exploring without a reason for exploring...sounds like a waste of time to me right now. I'm not against discovery, Shepard, but I feel like-"

Just then a **'ping'** sound resonated through the cabin, as both Mordin and Shepard looked towards her private terminal beside the map and then back at one another.

"Who could be mailing me this late?" Shepard asked.

"The Alliance? Anderson, perhaps?" Mordin asked, as Shepard stepped down from the perch to get to her terminal.

"No, he'd never reach out for work related things outside work hours," Shepard said, leaning down over the terminal and accessing her mail, "No this...doesn't have a sender name. Only says it was sent from a terminal on Omega."

"That doesn't bode well," Mordin said, "Omega never has anything good come out of it."

"You came out of it," Shepard said, reminding Mordin that that was where she found him when she required his assistance.

"Well, the exception proves the rule then," Mordin said and Shepard smiled.

"Mordin, listen to this. 'Commander Shepard, please excuse this late intrusion. I'm only sending this in the hopes of helping you on your travels, where ever that may be at this time. On a planet called Altanorch in the Ming system, you will find a cache left behind by a Blue Suns crew sent there for a pickup of supplies. I'm not sure why it was left, but rumor has it that there was simply no room left on the ship to bring anything more. I'm not sure what's inside the cache. I just hope it helps in some way. You're welcome'. Huh. Weird."

"Sounds... _sincere_ ," Mordin said, "Odd, seeing as the words 'Omega' and 'Sincerity' have never been spoken together in the same sentence before."

"It _does_ sound sincere," Shepard said, agreeing with him, "I think we should stop and pick it up. We could do it now, while the crew is asleep. I'll wake Joker, and you and I can go down planet side and snatch the thing."

"Mmm. Yes, best to get it done while not on assignment. Good thinking, Shepard," Mordin said, "I will be preparing for drop in the lab if you need me."

Mordin turned and started to head back down the hall, when Shepard called after him, stopping him in his tracks.

"And Mordin, one more thing?" she asked.

"Yes?"

"Don't carry organs around my ship please," she said.

"Duly noted," he replied, before going along his way.

* * *

 

**Altanorch, Ming System: 24:08**

Joker was now sitting at the control panel for the ship, preparing to land while half asleep as Shepard finished suiting up. Mordin had yet to return from the lab. Joker yawned and wiped his eyes.

"You sure you're ok to do this right now?" Shepard asked, "You seem pretty out of it."

"I'm probably the only person who can fly half asleep, I'll have you know," Joker said, as he adjusted his seat and sighed, "What's this for again?"

"A cache of supplies," Shepard said, sitting down and attaching her comm link to her armor on her hip.

"Supplies of what, exactly?" Joker asked.

"Message didn't say," Shepard said.

"Oh that's good. Yeah, that's not shady at all," Joker said.

"It sounded sincere enough that I didn't think questioning it would be necessary," Shepard said, sitting up as Mordin arrived and he and Shepard gave a nod to one another.

"Oh, sincerity? We're basing this mission on the sincerity of text?" Joker asked, "Really?"

"I second Shepards statement, it did indeed sound sincere," Mordin said.

"You two realize how hard it is to get emotional tone out of text, right?" Joker asked.

"We do," Mordin said.

"And?" Joker asked.

"We're choosing to ignore you," Mordin finished, as Shepard laughed.

The ship took a dip down to the planet surface nice and softly, as Shepard and Mordin opened the hatch to a drop pod and stepped inside, ducking under the tiny door hole. They took seats on opposite sides, and waited for Jokers release. As they waited, Mordin looked at Shepard and his brow furrowed for a second.

"Having second thoughts?" Shepard asked.

"No. Merely something popped into my head," Mordin said, "It's often easy to tell sincerity in text. But Joker is right. Without tone...it's a bit hard to detect some of the other emotions, such as anger, or deceit."

"Deceit isn't necessarily an emotion, it's more of an action," Shepard said.

"Either way," Mordin continued, "If one wanted to lie, text would be the best way one could do so. I do think we should be careful."

"Noted," Shepard said, nodding.

A few seconds later, the pod dropped and a minute or two after, they felt the ground beneath them. Shepard opened the pod door, and Mordin stepped out. Shepard followed, hand on her pistol holster on her other hip. Mordin looked around quickly, trying to take in everything that he could for instant visual analysis. He pressed a button on his visor, and signaled.

"Heat signature," Mordin said, pointing over a horizon, "Easily be a person, or animal. Doesn't seem to be moving."

"Stay alert," Shepard said.

Together, they began moving East, towards the heat signature. Shepard looked all around, but didn't sense any sort of danger. Just as they started making their way downhill, she heard a metallic clack under her boot hell, and stopped. She glanced down, and saw something shimmering on the ground. Shepard bent down and picked it up, dusting it off with her thumb. It appeared to be an...ID card? She felt Mordin come back to her side, as she stood back up.

"What did you find?" he asked.

"An identification card of some sort. Belonged to someone from ExoGeni Corp. Name and photo's been completely scratched out," Shepard said.

"Could've simply been lost during a visit," Mordin said.

"Could be. Also could be a sign of trouble," Shepard added, "Stay on high alert."

"Indeed, commander," Mordin said, as she slipped it into a pouch and they continued on their way.  
After almost 20 minutes of walking, they reached the source of the heat signature. It was coming from a crate, which they both assumed to be the cache mentioned in the message, that was simply sitting by a few other crates. They leaned down and Shepard slowly opened the crate. They just stared for a few seconds.

"What is that?" she asked, "Is that a...a pulse amplifier?"

"Appears to be, yes," Mordin said, "Seems like it was pulsing harder the closer we got to it. Must've been modified to sense our heat signature and give our a higher frequency pulse everytime we get closer. This seems of little value to us."

"Check the other crates," Shepard said, as she picked the pulse amplifier up and turned it over in her hand.   
Mordin checked them, then looked back at her, "Nothing in any of them, Shepard."

"Why would someone want us to have this?" she asked, before noticing the pebbles on the ground around them quake a bit, and then the ground shook more. Mordin looked at the crate itself, and scanned it with his omnitool.

"No viable trace sources of DNA left. Seems...odd. Unless Blue Suns were wearing gloves of some kind. Even then, there'd be fiber DNA from that or something," he said, "This seems-"

"Mordin," Shepard whispered, and he looked at her as she pointed at the shaking pebbles, "They put this here to signal something. To bring something towards it. This isn't just an amplifier, it's signaling something...it's a trap!"

As she said that, only mere feet behind them did they hear the shriek of what sounded like a Thresher Maw.   
" _Run!_ " Shepard said, grabbing the Salarian by his arm and dragging him back up the hill. The ground was starting to rumble violently beneath them, making it harder to get back up the hill. She grabbed her comm link and put it to her lips.

"Joker! This is Shepard! We need immediate evac!" she shouted, "I repeat, we need immediate emergency evac!"

"On my way!" Joker radioed back.

Shepard and Mordin looked behind them, to see the Thresher Maw rise up from the ground and road again, as it just as quickly dove back down and headed for them. Mordin looked at Shepard and she shook her head.

"We should've listened to Joker," Shepard said.

"First time anyone's said that," Mordin added.

Mere seconds later, the Normandy appeared overhead near a cliffside, and the shuttle doors opened. Shepard motioned to Mordin for him to go first, and he did as he was told. Mordin stood up and started running towards the cliffside, only to be interrupted by another ground tremor from the Maw, which cause him to slip and begin sliding back down the hill.

"Mordin!" Shepard shouted, as she let go of the ground and slid down after him. She forced herself to roll towards him, wrapped her arms around him and shouted, "Hold onto me!" as they slid right off the cliffside. Thankfully, Joker had piloted the Normandy onto its side just under them, and they simply fell into the ship through the open doors, and hit the metal wall. The doors shut, and they blasted back off into space. Shepard slowly stood up, rubbing her head as Mordin sighed.

"And to think you're irritated by organs," Mordin said quietly.

* * *

Sitting back aboard the ship, around the table in Mordins lab, Shepard, Mordin and Joker were simply staring at the pulse amplifier Shepard had laid out in front of them. She was the only one not sitting, but instead pacing back and forth, hands on her hips. 

"Someone," she started, "Put this in a crate at the bottom of the hill. They modified it so it'd be sensitive to our own heat signature and would let out a bigger pulse everytime we got nearer, knowing a Thresher Maw would cause tremors and make it harder or impossible to get back up that hill. This was calculated attempted murder."

"And there was no traceable DNA on the crates," Mordin added, "There was nothing whatsoever. Must've been handled by machines. Yes. Only way."

"So, should we go to Omega?" Joker asked.

"I think that's our only option right now," Shepard said.

"Shepard," Mordin started, "What about that ID?"

Shepards face lit up, as she reached for it in her pocket and pulled it out, "Right! This was on the ground. ExoGeni Corp. ID but...no photo, not even a name. Been completely cleared of any identifying info."

"Just because you can't see something," Mordin said, taking it and running it under his omnitool, "Doesn't mean it isn't there."

A few seconds later, a sharp buzz sounded from his tool, and he nodded.

"We got something," he said, "Nothing big, but something nonetheless. Slight amount of DNA, though..."

Joker and Shepard glanced at eachother, before looking back at Mordin.

"Though?" Joker asked.

"...well," Mordin said, "Hmmm...strange indeed, could be mix up or broken omnitool from ground scuffle but...says that it's Prothean."

Shepard and Joker glanced at eachother again, this time with concern.

"Prothean?" Shepard asked, "They're...extinct."

"And how," Mordin said, "But...unless it's broken, the omnitool doesn't lie."

Shepard ran her hands over her face and groaned, walking in circles.

"Alright, _now_ I need to sleep," she said, "We'll pick this up tomorrow. Until then, neither of us says anything about it to anyone else on board, understood?"

Both Joker and Mordin saluted her. Shepard turned and walked out of the lab as Joker leaned forward in his seat, across from Mordin, and they stared at the omnitool result together.

"How is this possible?" Joker asked.

"For once, Joker, I have no idea," Mordin said.

Shepard didn't want to go to sleep. She was afraid now. She didn't get spooked easily, or often, but this was something that rattled her. As she removed her uniform in her quarters, and brushed out her hair, she took a seat on her bed and heard the light snoring behind her. She smiled, and glanced over her shoulder to see the beautiful frame of Dr. Liara T'soni asleep in her side of the bed. Shepard leaned over and kissed the Asaris smooth, blue shoulder before laying down beside her, arms behind her head, staring up at the ceiling. 

Someone had just tried to murder her.

That never shakes off easily.


End file.
